One of the main reasons taxpayers are opposed to identity cards is the sheer cost of them and the potential spiralling cost to administer a scheme that may well not work as well as the politicians foresee.
Is it any wonder we suspect the costs will grow when the Home Office advertises for an ‘Executive Director, Business Development and Marketing’ at a salary over £120,000 with £10,000 relocation pay, £2,000 London location allowance, final salary pension and no probationary period if you’re already a civil servant. Not bad work if you can get it.
The other problem with this job, aside from the gross costs to the taxpayer, is that this role is essentially a political non-job. Politicians are meant to sell and argue the merits of a policy, not civil servants. Yet this £120k government job is to ‘market’ ID Cards, a policy already approved of in parliament. Why the need to market it more? It’s been voted on, the debate has been had. If the people aren’t supportive of the idea, then the politicians need to rethink their policy or convince us more and not use our money to pay for more bureaucrats to tell us how good the government’s poorly-defended policies are.